What Other Medications Are You Taking?

At the start of therapy with BioPlus and at each and every refill, I ask my patients “what other medications are you taking?” Does that seem a bit much? Well, let me tell you a story…

One of my patients once called me to report a non-stop, hacking cough. He was really getting annoyed with it. In fact, he’d been to his primary care physician numerous times to address it and was given all sorts of cough medicines. Nothing seemed to do the trick.

On the day he called me, I asked him that same question I always ask patients: “what other medications are you taking?” It was then that the source of his chronic, bothersome cough became obvious to me: he was taking a high blood pressure medication that is known to cause a dry cough.

I advised the patient of this medication’s side effect and told him to mention that to his primary care doctor. It was just a few days later that the patient called me back to thank me. His doctor switched his blood pressure medicine and in that short period of time the cough was already getting much better!

You see, here at BioPlus, we are not only concerned with the medications we are dispensing to a patient, but all of the medications prescribed to each patient. So the next time a pharmacy team member asks “what other medications are you taking?” don’t hesitate to give the entire list of medications….who knows, it may actually help you.